Lably
Skip to content

Social deduction game

Category of game

  • 6 min read
  • 4 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Deductive reasoning, COVID-19 pandemic and Netflix

Lab · Class 9Recommendation Engines — How Netflix Works

Early social deduction games, such as Hoax (1981) and Mafia (1986), were board or card games, and social deduction video games such as Space Station 13 (2003), Town of Salem (2014), and Among Us (2018) began to be created in the 2000s. Both card game and video game social deduction games rose in prominence in the late 2010s.

Definition

A social deduction game is a game, typically a card game, board game, or video game, in which players attempt to uncover each other's hidden role or team allegiance. Commonly, these games are played with teams, with one team being considered "good" and another being "bad". During gameplay, players can use logic and deductive reasoning to try to deduce one another's roles, while other players can bluff to keep players from suspecting them. The genre has also been loosely defined as one where discussion is split between "private" knowledge and discussion and a "public square" phase in which accusations can be made or knowledge can be made public.

Examples of social deduction games include Mafia, in which only the mafia know who is mafia and what the mafia players' roles are; Bang!, in which only the sheriff's role is known to everyone; and Secret Hitler, in which only the fascists know who the fascists are, except for the player who plays as Hitler.

One important element of strategy in some social deduction games is determining how long to stick to one's story in the light of information obtained from other players. A Monte Carlo tree search has been suggested for making decisions in social deduction games. Additionally, the presence of multiple rounds of the game with the same players introduces a strong meta-gaming social component, wherein players must think of not only how to win the current round, but how other players have acted in prior rounds or how they might need to act in future rounds if they are on the other team.

Sign in to keep reading

3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Sports, games and recreation

FIFAInternational governing body of association footballNational Collegiate Athletic AssociationNorth American athletic organizationMajor League SoccerProfessional soccer league in the United States and CanadaNASCARAmerican automobile racing companyCommonwealth GamesMulti-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of NationsNew York YankeesMajor League Baseball franchise